Sisters of the Reef follows a CHamoru healer whose sacred bond with reef sharks becomes a vessel of kinship, memory, and resistance as Spanish colonization threatens to sever her village from the sea. What drew you to the legend of a woman protected by sharks?

When brainstorming on story ideas, I decided to look at the legends that I grew up with. I started to notice a pattern. CHamorus in those legends all seem to have some kind of deficiency – jealousy, disrespect, violence. I began to suspect colonial bias and chose that as my focus when looking at our legends. I also know that there still exists a rift between CHamorus in Guam and CHamorus in the Northern Marianas due primarily to various colonial agendas and due to the behavior of some during the atrocities of World War 2.

The legend of the woman and her shark guardian seems to have its origins in the island of Tinian. I started out with a legend from Guam. I thought it would be good to include a legend from another island next. When I saw the story as an opportunity to use it as an origin story for how white-tip and black-tip sharks got their colors, I was even more set on writing this story.

Gåni’s relationship with the reef sharks feels deeply reciprocal rather than symbolic. How did you shape the sharks as beings with agency and emotional presence?

This is partially based on the cultural premise that we share this world with other beings. We don’t reign over them. We share it. This isn’t too far from my personal beliefs and how I can see many animals having agency, having their own unique personalities, and making choices that are in their control. That’s what I imagined when I came across the legend of the woman and her shark guardian.

There are stories from all over the world about animals making conscious choices to help and protect people. Dogs, horses, dolphins, whales, even sharks. Divers and fishermen have stories they could share about reef sharks who actually appeared to have protected them from danger. Being a big fan of these types of stories, it seemed only natural to me that these sharks were beings with agency.

The novel treats the natural world as family, not scenery. Was that worldview central to the story from the beginning?

Yes. It is a cultural and personal worldview that was important for me to share in this story. Indirectly, I hope readers will appreciate this view and will begin to use it to come to appreciate CHamorus who, as a people, do not have a world voice and are only known as a tourist destination or as some island out in the middle of nowhere. If readers can respect how we see nature and our world, perhaps these readers will come to see CHamorus as part of their world. So, it is central to the story, but also links to my overall goal as a writer – to share my culture with readers so that they may come to know us and appreciate us.

How did you balance the wonder of mythic fantasy with the historical violence of Spanish colonization?

The CHamoru people have survived some horrific episodes in history. While I take some liberties in my storytelling, I don’t believe that I am too far off from the harsh realities of the times. I wanted to ensure that I conveyed a strong sense of what CHamorus endured and what we lost.

I also wanted to share the world that many CHamorus see in the Mariana Islands. The world of ancestral spirits and the value of seeking balance with nature are not fantasy. They are a part of daily life. Ask any CHamoru that you meet about the Taotaomo’na and you will likely strike an emotional chord. They would likely be proud to share what they know; happy that you showed interest; and may even have some exciting stories to tell.

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